REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein
Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who made an early run for the presidency, instead is heading back to Washington for a second term.

Paul defeated Democrat Jim Gray, the mayor of Lexington.

Paul repeatedly clashed with Donald Trump during the GOP primary debates. He later endorsed Trump but spoke little about him while campaigning for re-election.

The candidates spent a combined $8 million on the race, a paltry sum considering the more than $47 million Kentucky's Senate candidates spent in 2014. The Senate race has been overshadowed by the presidential race and the battle for the state House of Representatives - the only legislative chamber in the South still controlled by Democrats.

Tim Scott

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott, the South's first black senator since Reconstruction, has won his first full term.

Scott defeated Democrat Thomas Dixon, a community activist and pastor.

The Senate's only black Republican, Scott said he would vote for Donald Trump, even as he has characterized some of Trump's statements and actions as "disgusting," ''indefensible" and "racially toxic."

Scott, one of only two black senators, said on the Senate floor this summer that he has repeatedly been pulled over by law enforcement and was once even stopped by a Capitol Police officer who apparently did not believe he was a senator.

Scott, 51, was appointed to the seat in 2013 following the resignation of Sen. Jim DeMint, then won election to the final two years of that term.

Patrick Leahy

FILE - In this Dev. 17, 2014 file photo, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. walks on Capitol Hill in Washington. Leahy is now a member of a very exclusive club. He cast his 15,000th vote on Tuesday. “That means he’s taken the largest number of votes among all of us currently serving here in the Senate,” Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in paying tribute to Leahy. “It means he’s taken the sixth largest number of votes in Senate history.” (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
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Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy has won an eighth term. He's the Senate's longest-serving member. The 76-year-old beat back a challenge from Republican businessman Scott Milne.

Leahy was first elected in 1974 from the liberal state. He's the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee and will likely chair the panel if Democrats reclaim the majority.

He says he hopes "reasonable" Republicans in the Senate will agree to perform their constitutional duty of advice and consent on judicial nominees, including the Supreme Court.